README.TXT For IBM MPEG Interactive Video Player(TM) Version 2.32 -- 1/16/97 ============================================================================ Congratulations on your purchase of the IBM MPEG Interactive Video Player. This file contains important information not available at the time the manual was printed. Please take time to read through it for the latest updates. CONTENTS ======== 1 - SOFTWARE INSTALLATION a - NOTES ON SETUP Windows 3.x i - Improved Error Handling ii - Command Line Options b - PnP INSTALLATION Windows 95 i - CHANGING A RESOURCE 2 - BORDER ADJUSTMENT AND CALIBRATION 3 - REALmagic MIXER 4 - FILTER PROGRAM 5 - RUNNING DOS TITLES 6 - RUNNING WINDOWS TITLES 7 - SPECIAL FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS OF MPEG TITLES 8 - REALmagic FILE DESCRIPTIONS 9 - MISCELLANEOUS 1 - SOFTWARE INSTALLATION ===================== a - NOTES ON SETUP Windows 3.x ============== This release installs an OM-1 Compliant DOS driver (OM1DRV.EXE) with the following entry in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file : SET OM1=C:\REALMAGC\OM1DRV.EXE i - Improved Error Handling ----------------------- It is possible that with some hardware configurations, the I/O address, IRQ, and DMA channel scanning done by the SETUP program will cause the system to crash (in almost all cases, this is due to poor resource management of another component). The SETUP program maintains a status file in the root directory of your boot drive. If the system crashes during the scanning, SETUP will make a note in the status file. When your system reboots, SETUP will automatically load itself and will automatically continue scanning your system, skipping the IRQ, I/O address, or DMA channel test that had caused the system to crash previously. This process may repeat before all of the offending causes are eliminated. If there are no errors, the status file is automatically deleted upon the completion of SETUP. ii - Command Line Options -------------------- You can manually disable the scanning of the I/O address, IRQ, DMA channel, and CD-ROM interface. Append one or more of these options after typing SETUP : /NOIO -- disables I/O address scanning /NOIRQ -- disables IRQ scanning /NODMA -- disables DMA channel scanning For example, "SETUP /NODMA" executes the SETUP program without scanning for DMA channels. b - PnP INSTALLATION for Windows 95 ---------------------------------- After the hardware installation, do the following : 1 - Boot your system. 2 - After the Windows 95 logo display, the system will recognize that a new board was installed (Plug-N-Play feature of the IBM MPEG Interactive Video Player). You will get the window "New Hardware Found" with the IBM MPEG Interactive Video Player signature. 3 - Choose the option "Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer". 4 - Click OK. 5 - A new window "Install from Disk" will display. Now, you insert the "IBM MPEG Interactive Video Player" CD in your CD-ROM drive. Make sure the text box specifies the correct driver specifier ( e.g. D:\). Click OK. 6 - The system will start copying all the software to the C:\REALMAGC directory. Then it will return to the desktop. 7 - Click on Start. Choose Run. Type D:\SETPRO.EXE. Click OK. 8 - Reboot the system (Start, Shut Down, Restart System). 9 - This release installs an OM-1 Compliant DOS driver (OM1DRV.EXE). Please enter the following line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT to make use of this driver for DOS titles requiring OM-1 drivers : SET OM1=C:\REALMAGC\OM1DRV.EXE i - CHANGING A RESOURCE (for Advanced Users) in Windows 95 ------------------- If you wish to change a resource (I/O address or/and IRQ number) assigned by the Plug N Play feature of Win 95, do the following : 1- Start System from the the Control Panel group. 2- Choose Device Manager and double-click on "Sound, video, and game controllers". 3- Double-click on "IBM MPEG Interactive Video Player". 4- Select the tab "Resources". 5- Double-click on the required resource. Click "Change Settings". 6- Modify the settings to the required value. Make sure there is NO conflict specified in the Conflict Information box. Click OK. 7- Edit the file C:\REALMAGC\FMPDRV.INI as follows : - under the [REALMAGIC] section the line Port= for the new I/O Address - under the [MPEG] section the line Interrupt= for the new IRQ. 8- Reboot. 2 - BORDER ADJUSTMENT AND COLOR CALIBRATION ======================================= NOTE : You must set the Border Adjustment and Color Calibration settings to finalize the installation. You need to set the Border Adjustment and Color Calibration only once for each display settings (resolution, number of colors, and refresh rate) under Windows, and run Border Adjustment only one time in the DOS mode. This utility can be called also from the RM Mixer utility. Windows: ------- 1- Start Border Adjust program in the IBM MPEG Player group. 2- Use the H-POS and V-POS buttons to align the top left corner of the black and magenta rectangles, then use the H-SIZE buttons to resize the black rectangle to cover exactly the magenta area. This should work for the majority of the VGA boards available. IMPORTANT NOTE : For the following rare cases :- a -If the black area height is HALF the magenta area height, click the button "NI" (non-interlaced) and then "EXIT". Restart "Border Adjust". b -If the black area height is DOUBLE the magenta area height, click the button "I" (interlaced) and then "EXIT". Restart "Border Adjust". It is recommended NOT to use the buttons "NI" and "I" other than the above indicated conditions. 3- Click the Save button to save the settings. 4- If you observe jittering at the right or left edge on the aligned black box, click on the Horizontal Stability "+" and "-" buttons until you get the smoothest sides among the 16 values. 5- Next, click the Auto button to automatically calibrate the color for your VGA card. Color bars will be displayed on the screen followed by a vertical white line flashing in the middle of a black screen. When the Border Adjust program is redisplayed, calibration is complete. - If you are using the SVGA drivers of Windows 3.x, add the following line in the [VGA] section of the file FMPDRV.INI in the REALMAGC directory: SVGA = 1 (If you select manual calibration, then follow the instructions provided on the screen to adjust the colors in three steps.) 6- Click the Done button. DOS: --- 1- At the DOS prompt (in Real Mode MS-DOS for Windows 95), type DOSCALIB and press . 2- Repeat step 2 above - aligning the black and magenta borders - (and 4 if necessary - smoothing the jittering) and press Exit. This procedure will repeat THREE times for text and graphics modes. 3 - REALmagic MIXER =============== Besides the volume adjustment for the MPEG audio signal, the RM Mixer has got three additional TV set-like faders for the following : - Fader "B" for Brightness Control - Fader "C" for Contrast Control - Fader "S" for Saturation Control You can adjust these faders while playing an MPEG file for a better control of your setting. There is also a button for "Border Adjust and Calibration". Just click it to activate this utility. 4 - Filter Program ============== This program is a demo feature to show you the difference in having the filtering option or not having it when playing back an MPEG file. For a better display you should have the filter On. "Up" and "Down" refer to upscaling and downscaling. 5 - RUNNING DOS TITLES (on a Windows 95 system) ================== The way DOS works has slightly changed under Windows 95. In order to optimize performance of DOS MPEG titles, please run the titles in the Real Mode of MS-DOS: 1- Select "Shut Down" from the Taskbar (after quitting Windows applications). 2- Select "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode". 3- At the DOS prompt after reboot, enter the command for the title, such as : C:\>D: D:\>FLASH 4- To start Windows after exiting from the title, type : c:\>EXIT 6 - RUNNING WINDOWS TITLES ====================== If you run a Windows title and you get the message "No MPegVideo driver", do the following : 1- In the Accessories group, double-click on Notepad. 2- Choose the File, Open menu. 3- Type C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI in the filename box and press . 4- Go to the section MCI after the line ReelMagic=C:\REALMAGC\MCIFMP.DRV 5- Add the line : MPegVideo=C:\REALMAGC\MCIFMP.DRV (This example assumes that your REALmagic drivers were installed on drive C: in the directory REALMAGC.) 6- Save and Exit from the File menu. 7 - SPECIAL FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS OF MPEG TITLES ============================================== Version 2.21 of REALmagic drivers is using a new algorithm to reach the best accuracy in Frame Seeking. This might not work for titles developed using earlier versions of REALmagic drivers. To force the driver to use the old algorithm, modify or add the SeekAccurate flag line in the [MCI] section of the FMPDRV.INI in the REALMAGC directory to be : SeekAccurate=False 8 - REALmagic FILE DESCRIPTIONS =========================== The following are the descriptions of the files contained in the REALmagic directory: CARDLOGO BM_ Logo bitmap file CBARS VB_ Video BitStream file CDIMOVIE DR_ CD-i/Video CD movie driver CTL3D DLL 3D resource file for the Windows 3.x Setup program DIGITALV MC_ MCI Digital Video translation table DOSCAL EX_ Border adjustment and color calibration program for DOS DOSCALIB BA_ Batch file to run calibration software in DOS DOSMIX EX_ Mixer program for DOS DRAGON BA_ Batch file to run Dragon's Lair using DOS MPEG driver DSP BI_ Audio DSP code EGAVGA BG_ EGA graphics library FILTER EX_ Filtering On/Off program FMPDRV EX_ TSR driver for DOS FMPDRV IN_ Initialization file IMPEG DR_ Driver for Windows MCIFMP DR_ MCI driver MPGBKGND TS_ Background Task file to help low-level driver MPGCONF EX_ Border adjustment and color calibration program for Windows MPGPIC BI_ MPEG DSP code MPGWMIX EX_ Mixer program for Windows OM1DRV EX_ OM-1 Compliant DOS Driver PIC2DEV SY_ MPEG device driver PRO INF Installation information program for Windows 95 README TXT Text file containing udpates and technical notes REALMAGC GRP Windows group file for Windows 95 REBOOT COM Program to reboot the computer RM ID Identification file RMSETUP DLL Setup library RMTESTS DLL Test library SETPRO EXE Program to complete Windows 95 installation SETUP EXE Setup program for Windows 3.x SETUP INI Initialization file for the Setup program SETUPLGO BMP Setup program logo bitmap file TEST BA_ Batch file to run DOS MPEG file player TESTFMP EX_ MPEG file player for DOS UPDATE EXE Update program VGA256 BG_ VGA graphics library VPLAYER EX_ Video CD player for DOS WVPLAYER EX_ CD Station program WVPLAYER HL_ CD Station help file 9 - MISCELLANEOUS ============= Help for REALmagic CD Station ----------------------------- Windows On-Line Help is available for the REALmagic CD Station from the Control Menu Box or just press key any time. Pull down the Control Menu Box and select Help!. Then select the topic you want from the list. Playing DRAGON'S LAIR --------------------- Dragon's Lair requires the REALmagic DOS driver to be loaded in memory before it will play. We provide a batch file in the REALmagic directory called DRAGON.BAT that handles all this for you. To play Dragon's Lair, place the CD in your CD-ROM drive and type: CD \REALMAGC and press DRAGON and press Note: the batch file assumes your CD-ROM drive letter is "D". If this is not the case, you will need to use a text editor to modify the batch file. The line which reads: D: should be changed to reflect your CD-ROM's drive letter (e.g. "E:"). Playing THE HORDE ----------------- Make sure your sound card is 100% SoundBlaster(TM) compatible. Some sound cards, such as the Media Vision ProAudio Spectrum 16(TM) and boards that use the Media Vision PAS 16(TM) chip set, will not work with The Horde (no sound). Crystal Dynamics has provided a fix for this in the form of a new HORDE.EXE. It is available on the Sigma Designs BBS for download. Another sound card, the Sound Galaxy Pro(TM) from Aztech, requires a special command when starting The Horde. Modify the PLAY.BAT file in the \HORDE directory (created by the INSTALL program) to start The Horde with the command line "HORDE /S:SBLASTER" (between FMPLOAD and FMPLOAD /U). Without this command line option, the volume controls of the Sound Galaxy Pro will be set to zero each time you start The Horde. If you use disk caching programs, such as Microsoft SMARTDRV, you MAY experience hanging problems. If you do, try turning off the "write-caching" to the hard drive where The Horde has been installed. For example, if you use SMARTDRV and The Horde is installed on drive C:, use the command SMARTDRV C to turn off "write-caching" on drive C:. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ( END OF FILE )